The Congress of the People (Cope) kicked off its national congress on Friday afternoon six hours late, and speakers then tried hard to unite the party polarised by the leadership race.
Cope announced on Thursday that its national leadership, the congress national committee (CNC), would propose the gathering be converted into a policy conference and that elections be deferred to September.
However, delegates at the conference at the St George’s Hotel in Centurion, Tshwane, rejected this proposal.
Current president Mosiuoa Lekota is being challenged by deputy Mbhazima Shilowa for the position.
Tensions were running high ahead of the opening of the conference when delegates, mostly from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, chanted pro-Shilowa slogans and called for elections.
Delegates used placards to send a message of disapproval to Cope leaders: “CNC has got no mandate, only branch delegates decide”, read one placard held by a delegate from the Eastern Cape.
Others declared that the branches were ready to elect leaders and it was time for Lekota to hand over power to Shilowa.
Cope must remain one
In his address, Shilowa discouraged any talk of splitting the party because of leadership disagreements.
‘We must give no inch to the threats of separation and split because Cope is the asset of the people of South Africa. When all is said and done Cope must remain one”.
He assured delegates that no one was going to walk away from the “difficult task” of uniting Cope.
‘We will fight and swear at each other, but when we get home we will prepare to come back and meet each other again the following day. Whatever our differences, there shall be one Congress of the People,” Shilowa said.
There have been rumours over the past few weeks that Lekota and his followers would break away should he lose the power to lead.
Lekota warned in an opinion piece in the M&G recently that a “congress that is unrepresentative, that is dominated by one faction in the party or that addresses personalities as leaders will divide the party and may even split it“.
Shilowa also admitted that leadership battles had created tensions. “We are at the bottom from the point of view of many in our country. It doesn’t matter that we are at the bottom. What I’m saying is that we will rise up”.
Shilowa indirectly encouraged delegates to take control of the conference in order to ‘bring all uncertainties to an end. Any arrangement that we enter into as leaders must pass the pan-ultimate test. It must have your support.”
‘It must be a commitment to building Cope and it must not just be a temporary leadership truce.”
Delegates replied by singing the isiXhosa song iCNC mayithule, ithi tuu, kuzothethwa emasebeni, telling the leadership that the delegates should be the ones to decide whether a leader should be elected.
Some delegates struggled to gain access to the venue at the opening of the conference, many of them claiming to come from branches that support Lekota.
Shilowa called delegates who were inside the venue the first “legitimate, audited branches of our organisation”.
Lekota’s support appeared to be outnumbered by Shilowa’s supporters.
‘We have to leave here with new leaders’
The Northern Cape, one of the provinces that are staunch supporters of Lekota, could not even finish a song that challenged Shilowa and were quickly undermined by the Shilowa group.
Donald Lesshope, a delegate from the Free State, told the M&G that his province wanted to elect a leader.
‘My province and my branch gave me a mandate to come here and ensure that this conference results in a permanent leadership”.
He said Cope structures were facing serious challenges because they lacked firm leadership.”We are still operating with an interim constitution that needs us to approve and adopt it. We have to leave here on Sunday with new leaders.”
Lekota was expected to deliver a political report according to the conference agenda, but the founding president delivered a speech that highlighted the failures of the ruling African National Congress, failures that he said justified why the party had been formed.